Sydney's balmy conditions extend deep into autumn

Sydneysiders have had little use for cold-weather clothing so far this autumn, with just one day in April when the mercury failed to reach 20 degrees, and no nights below 12 degrees, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

Peter Hannam

Sydneysiders have had little use for cold-weather clothing so far this autumn, with just one day in April when the mercury failed to reach 20 degrees, and no nights below 12 degrees, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

While last month was a cloudy one for Sydney – with 90 minutes less daily sunshine making it the gloomiest April since 1990 – it was another warm one.

“It was a month of mild days and mild nights,” said Agata Imielska, senior climatologist with the bureau. “There’s not been a lot of jacket-wearing weather.”

Last month’s weather highlights included 12 days of 25 degrees or warmer days, compared with a long-term average of five. The 29.9 degrees posted on April 24 was also the warmest day so late in the season since 1953. April would typically have six days with maximums below 20 but last month only had the one.

Maximum temperatures were 1.4 degrees above average and minimums 1.2 degrees higher. Earlier in the month, the city ended 36 days of at least 22 degrees – the third longest on record – while last Sunday’s rainy chill snapped 160 days of 20 degrees or warmer, the seventh longest such stretch.

The balmy conditions will end briefly on Saturday when a pool of cold air keeps maximums to 17 degrees although stiff winds will make conditions feel more like 12 or cooler. After that, daily maximums should hover above May’s average of 19.4 degrees for well into next week with partly cloudy days expected.

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Rain fell on roughly every second day in April, curbing average daily sunshine to 5.4 hours, although totals for the city ended marginally below the long-run average at just over 121 millimetres.

Statewide rainfall was also just below the average for the month. Temperatures were also on the warm side, with almost all of NSW reporting average minimums in the top 20 per cent over the past century for April, Ms Imielska said.

Nationwide, large parts of inland Australia reported record rainfall, some of which also found its way to south-eastern regions to give farmers in Victoria and parts of NSW their best autumn drop for years. The moisture came largely from tropical systems, however, rather than more typical winter-like storms.

“It was not your classic autumn break,” Ms Imielska said.

Queensland posted its warmest minimums on record while two-thirds of Victoria recorded overnight temperatures in the top 10 per cent of years.

Last year was Australia’s warmest on record and meteorologists say 2014 is shaping up to be another unusually warm one not least because of the growing likelihood of an El Nino weather pattern forming in the tropical Pacific.

Past El Nino years have been set global temperature records and have typically brought hot, dry conditions to much of Australia as changing wind patterns tend to shift rainfall away from the continent. A background warming caused by climate change is also increasing the likelihood that heat records will be broken, scientists say.